Road construction workers bulldoze Belize Mayan pyramid

The damaged sides of the Nohmul complex, one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids in northern Belize. Source: Supplied

ONE of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids has been bulldozed and its stonework crushed to extract rock for a road-building project.

The construction company has essentially destroyed the pyramid with backhoes and bulldozers, authorities announced last night.

The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Jaime Awe, said the destruction at the Nohmul complex in northern Belize was detected late last week. The ceremonial centre dates back at least 2,300 years and is the most important site in northern Belize, near the border with Mexico.

"It's a feeling of Incredible disbelief because of the ignorance and the insensitivity ... they were using this for road fill," Awe said. "It's like being punched in the stomach, it's just so horrendous."

Nohmul sat in the middle of a privately owned sugar cane field, and lacked the even stone sides frequently seen in reconstructed or better-preserved pyramids. But Awe said the builders could not possibly have mistaken the pyramid mound, which is about 100 feet tall, for a natural hill because the ruins were well-known and the landscape there is naturally flat.

"These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It's just bloody laziness", Awe said.

The D-Mar Construction company is owned by UDP politician Denny Grijalva.

Photos from the scene showed backhoes clawing away at the pyramid's sloping sides, leaving an isolated core of limestone cobbles at the centre, with what appears to be a narrow Mayan chamber dangling above one clawed-out section.

"Just to realize that the ancient Maya acquired all this building material to erect these buildings, using nothing more than stone tools and quarried the stone, and carried this material on their heads, using tump lines," said Awe. "To think that today we have modern equipment, that you can go and excavate in a quarry anywhere, but that this company would completely disregard that and completely destroyed this building. Why can't these people just go and quarry somewhere that has no cultural significance? It's mind-boggling."

Belizean police said they are conducting an investigation and criminal charges are possible. The Nohmul complex sits on private land, but Belizean law says that any pre-Hispanic ruins are under government protection.

The Belize community-action group Citizens Organized for Liberty Through Action called the destruction of the archaeological site "an obscene example of disrespect for the environment and history."

It is not the first time it's happened in Belize, a country of about 350,000 people that is largely covered in jungle and dotted with hundreds of Mayan ruin sites, though few as large as Nohmul.

Norman Hammond, an emeritus professor of archaeology at Boston University who worked in Belizean research projects in the 1980s, wrote in an email that "bulldozing Maya mounds for road fill is an endemic problem in Belize (the whole of the San Estevan centre has gone, both of the major pyramids at Louisville, other structures at Nohmul, many smaller sites), but this sounds like the biggest yet."

Arlen Chase, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Central Florida, said, "Archaeologists are disturbed when such things occur, but there is only a very limited infrastructure in Belize that can be applied to cultural heritage management."

"Unfortunately, they (destruction of sites) are all too common, but not usually in the centre of a large Maya site," Chase wrote.

The damaged sides of the Nohmul complex, one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids in northern Belize.

He said there had probably still been much to learn from the site. "A great deal of archaeology was undertaken at Nohmul in the '70s and '80s, but this only sampled a small part of this large centre."

Belize isn't the only place where the handiwork of the far-flung and enormously prolific Maya builders is being destroyed. The ancient Mayas spread across southeastern Mexico and through Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.

"I don't think I am exaggerating if I say that every day a Maya mound is being destroyed for construction in one of the countries where the Maya lived," wrote Francisco Estrada-Belli, a professor at Tulane University's Anthropology Department.

"Unfortunately, this destruction of our heritage is irreversible but many don't take it seriously," he added. "The only way to stop it is by showing that it is a major crime and people can and will go to jail for it."

Robert Rosenswig, an archaeologist at the State University of New York at Albany, described the difficult and heartbreaking work of trying to salvage information at the nearby site of San Estevan following similar destruction around 2005.

"Bulldozing damage at San Estevan is extensive and the site is littered with Classic period potsherds," he wrote in an academic paper describing the scene. "We spent a number of days at the beginning of the 2005 season trying to figure out the extent of the damage .... after scratching our heads for many days, a bulldozer showed up and we realized that what appear to be mounds, when overgrown with chest-high vegetation, are actually recently bulldozed garbage piles."

However small the compensation, bulldozing pyramids is one very brutal way of revealing the inner cores of the structures, which were often built up in periodic stages of construction.

"The one advantage of this massive destruction, to the core site, is that the remains of early domestic activity are now visible on the surface," Rosenswig wrote.

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Comments on this story

Aaron of Brisbane Posted at 2:22 PM May 14, 2013

Why are people so attached to material items? who cares it was an old piece of crap, know em all down, cut up ayres rock and turn it into something cool.

Comment 1 of 31

evanism Posted at 2:16 PM May 14, 2013

Smiddi, dee pee of syd - Australian aboriginals didn't have such artifacts. They didn't evolve the technology (which in itself is interesting as to why not) A few piles of stones left over from lunch and that's about it.

Comment 2 of 31

Megarich Dave Lister Inventor Of The Tension Sheet of From An Alternative Time Line Posted at 2:14 PM May 14, 2013

Amateurs, I bought Buckingham Palace and ground it up just to line my driveway,

Comment 3 of 31

thestupidroad Posted at 2:04 PM May 14, 2013

Who let the bulldozer on the property if these sites are protected by the government? Somebody got paid off. Somebody wants a road built. These people don't care about some forgotten race that lived there before them. They just want a road. They are too lazy to dig their own rocks. I see their logic. There's a pile of rocks. Let's use those. Those stupid Mayans did us a favor.

Comment 4 of 31

BMatlock of North Carolina Posted at 2:01 PM May 14, 2013

What happened? Did they run out of rain forests to destroy? What's next on their list? Whoever gave the go ahead for this project needs to be punished to the full extent of the local laws, if there are any local laws!

Comment 5 of 31

panda of perth Posted at 2:00 PM May 14, 2013

disgusting. There is nothing sacred when it comes to the almighty dollar. Heads must roll for this!

Comment 6 of 31

Yummy Mummy Posted at 1:34 PM May 14, 2013

OMG!

Comment 7 of 31

Cymek Posted at 1:33 PM May 14, 2013

That cover photo looks like a robot duck or is it just me?

Comment 8 of 31

Ben Posted at 1:01 PM May 14, 2013

Why isnt the UN invading this country? This is an act of war against Agenda 21.

Comment 9 of 31

Lance T. of VIC Posted at 12:52 PM May 14, 2013

As the late Bill Hicks once said, "People suck, and thatâs my contention. Weâre a virus with shoes."

Comment 10 of 31

Bean of beanville Posted at 12:52 PM May 14, 2013

Sorta like out local councils painting over Bankseys work...

Comment 11 of 31

Matt of Perth Posted at 12:51 PM May 14, 2013

The old gods wont be happy...

Comment 12 of 31

RL Posted at 12:37 PM May 14, 2013

What an outrageous act; this is just plain destruction to a Mayan building that is culturally significant to what was once a well advance civilization for its time. These are ancient ruins and as such sould've been protected as an historical landmark. This act of ignorance is beyond belief.

Comment 13 of 31

Mum of two Posted at 12:29 PM May 14, 2013

Typical big business. They should be jailed. Gone forever now, just like the Amazon, the elephants and rhinos, the big cats, many apes and so forth all because of big business and greedy people. They are a stain on humanity.

Comment 14 of 31

dee pee of syd Posted at 12:22 PM May 14, 2013

exactly what we have done to our own, original land inhabitants ...... why the surprises?

Comment 15 of 31

Star Carlton of Your House Posted at 12:17 PM May 14, 2013

I can't Belize it !!

Comment 16 of 31

Tricky of Country SA Posted at 12:16 PM May 14, 2013

Politicians...expect nothing better from any of them. Pick a country they're all the same. It's all about them and money.

Comment 17 of 31

Rob of Adelaide Posted at 12:15 PM May 14, 2013

It seems that some of the population of Belize that are involved in road construction and protecting ancient sites have a very low intellect.

Comment 18 of 31

Smiddi Posted at 12:14 PM May 14, 2013

Now we know how the Australian Aboriginals must feel?

Comment 19 of 31

Calvin Heraldson Posted at 12:11 PM May 14, 2013

That is how I felt when they blew up The Dunes Hotel in Vegas. Then the Lankmark Hotel, The Frontier, Rancho, Sands, Hacienda, Stardust, Sahara. We don't have to look far to see Capitalism working in it's finest hour.

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